Australian
workers should build Australia’s subs!
The Abbott Government’s “competitive
evaluation process” (CEP) for the construction of new submarines is an
unacceptable insult.
It is an insult to all – not least
Sen. Edwards – who genuinely believed Abbott had had a change of heart.
They are just weasel words to get
around what should be an open tender process for a local build.
The CEP does nothing to dispel claims
raised in the West Australian newspaper and elsewhere on Monday that a secret
deal had been made by Abbott to give the work to the Japanese.
“The
secret squirrel business…”
A tender process has defined
procedures and value for money criteria.
A CEP involves criteria other than those used in an open tender process.
An embarrassed Sen. Edwards nailed it
when he said on Tuesday, “They call it competitive evaluation: it’s tied up
with defence and the secret squirrel business…”
The “secret squirrel business” will
be a set of additional criteria which the public may never get to see but which
are likely to be framed in terms of “international alliance obligations” and
“strengthening defence partnerships”.
What this means is that the skill and
ability of an Australian workforce to build new generation submarines will be
ignored in favour of whatever the US wants.
Interoperability
The US has successfully pushed the
Australian government to scuttle plans to build 12 new submarines here. Instead,
they have argued that a model based on Mitsubishi and Kawasaki’s Soryu-class
vessels will better serve the needs of naval interoperability.
In a Reuters report last November,
senior US commanders were quoted as saying that the US would “welcome
Canberra’s purchase of Japanese submarines because of the increased
interoperability it would give the three navies”.
Interoperability basically means that
the US imperialists know down to the last detail the capabilities and
limitations of its own and its allies’ submarines, and that it has seamless use
of technologies for communications and cryptography. Issues around
communications can be the most serious in preventing effective
interoperability. To ensure effective digital information exchange,
including electronic counter measures, requires highly standardised, or
interoperable, enabling systems. The US objective is to standardise
communications protocols for allied operations.
The US regards it as to its own
advantage that Japan and Australia share a common submarine design. Given
that the Japanese military would not snub Mitsubishi and Kawasaki to purchase
an Australian manufactured submarine, it makes sense for them that Australia
purchases the Japanese Soryu-class vessels.
Re-establishing Japan as an arms
exporter
The US wants to dominate the Pacific
but they want their regional allies to more actively involve themselves in this
exercise. As a carrot for the Japanese militarists to share the task
of maintaining US domination, the US is working to realise Japanese PM Shinzo
Abe’s dream of re-establishing Japan as an arms exporter. Half a
century after a defeated Japan adopted a pacifist constitution, Abe has ended a
ban on Japanese weapons exports. Abe needs major contracts with
clean, respectable and stable customers to make this acceptable to the Japanese
people. Australia fits the bill and the tens of billions of
Australian dollars that would boost Japanese military manufacturing reflect a
higher strategic priority for US imperialism than the investment of the same
money in Australia.
Build on experiences with the Collins
class
Contrary to the repeated denigration
of the Collins class submarines by journalists keen to justify the Japanese
option, retired RAN Rear-Admiral Peter Briggs expresses confidence in the
experiences gained through the Collins project. In a paper released on
January 21, the submarine specialist maintains that the “Collins project has
been much maligned in the media, but an objective look at the program provides
both valuable lessons and encouragement that the future submarine can be
successfully built in Australia”.
US has no loyalty to a client state
The Americans have no particular
loyalty to their client states. Despite the very real importance to
Australian workers and manufacturers of keeping submarine production here, the
US is prepared to sacrifice Australian manufacturing on the altar of a revived
Japanese war machine.
It all illustrates the need for a
genuine commitment to Australia’s independence that can only come about through
the active leadership of the Australian working class.
